An amateur photographer has shared photos of the Northern Lights that he managed to capture from Cleat Hill near Ravendsden.
By day, Jon Pauling works for Bedford Borough Council’s Public Transport Team, but in his spare time, he’s a keen wildlife and landscape photographer.
“I’ve always wanted to photograph the Northern Lights but up until Friday morning, I’d never been successful,” Jon told the Bedford Independent.
However, on Thursday (23 March) he got an alert on an “Aurora Borealis app” that there was a chance of a sighting so he drove out to Cleat Hill in Ravensden, set up his tripod and crossed his fingers.
“There was some early activity with the Aurora showing bands of red and green on my camera but it wasn’t visible to the naked eye,” said Jon.
He explained that the camera can capture what the eye can’t because the shutter, open for 10 seconds, allows more of the ambient light onto the sensor.
“At approx 00:50 there was a sudden change that coincided with the onset of a “severe” substorm and the faint columns of red above a base of green were actually visible to the naked eye for about 10 minutes.
“This activity was captured in my photos and, while not quite as spectacular to the naked eye, was still impressive.
“I was delighted to have seen this celestial display, especially as it didn’t involve the expense of a trip to Iceland. It’s rare that we get the Aurora this far south and the last time it happened (in February this year), Bedford was blanketed in cloud cover.”
According to the Met Office, Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights occur “as a consequence of solar activity and result from collisions of charged particles in the solar wind colliding with molecules in the Earth’s upper atmosphere.”
Best witnessed in the UK in Scotland, the north of England, North Wales and Northern Ireland, it is rare that they are sighted this far south.
